Over the weekend, California Representative Maxine Waters once again defended her public statements encouraging her supporters to harass and assault their political opponents in mobs. During a Saturday appearance on the “Roland Martin Unfiltered” web show, Waters insisted that such protests “make America better” because protestors are fighting for “justice and equality for everybody.”

Rather than deny that she has been encouraging violent behavior against Republicans, Waters justified such tactics by claiming that the very nature of protests is to make their targets “feel uncomfortable”:

“I told someone the other day who is trying to say that we are violent when we protest: Protest is about making you feel uncomfortable. I’m not supposed to come to you and say: May I protest you?

[Roland Martin and staff laugh]

“No! Absolutely not. If your heart tells you that this is what you need to do because you see some injustice —that you see people who are creating, you know, a terrible time and pain for others — and you want to protest to try and make change, to try and make it right, then speak what your heart is telling you to do.”

Waters continued by lauding her concept of protests as a patriotic tradition and expression of American identity that has made our country a better place over the years:

“It is because of protests that we have been able to make America better. We are the patriots who say we believe in this country and we believe that it can be about justice and equality for everybody. And we can’t back up from that.”

“Right,” Martin agreed. Without any immediate pushback, Waters went on and concluded her line of thought by accusing conservatives and Republicans of trying to “intimidate” her and other Democrats for pointing out their encouragement of misdemeanor-level violence: